"Scorch" skill improvement

HoffmannTheBest · September 14

Those who played for Warden understand what this post will be about.

The "Scorch" skill is too weak in the sense that the shalks attack 3 seconds after the ability is cast, during which time the enemy can already kill the player or run away to a safe distance. Then they attack after 6 seconds! This is a loooooong time. When every second is important, these 3 and 6 seconds are very catastrophic. They completely neutralize all debuffs and all the damage they cause. Why do you need an ability that deals 10k damage every 10 seconds, when you can deal 5k damage every second with the "Dive" skill, and with an improved version give a buff or deal continuous damage with bleeding?

Therefore, I suggest the following:

The shalks should crawl out immediately after the ability is cast, and then only after 3 seconds. At the same time, prohibit re-casting until the end of the ability and make the cooldown 1-1.5 seconds, like the ability "Fatecarver", where there is a cooldown of the ability and you can't spam it endlessly per second.

The_Isatope8 · September 14

Scorch is their burst skill, Warden in PvP is similar to nightblade in that you need to be aware of timing and rotation to pull off insane damage. I think that wardens problem is the lack of a reliable stun in their kit. Arctic Blast does have a stun, but a stun should be on demand instead of having a timer attached. The timer does align with their setup and payoff playstyle, but it feels very wonky and unsatisfying to play, plus someone else can take advantage of the time between cast and the stun to run away or stun you which ruins the combo.

I also think that Scorch needs to have a wider hitbox, because faster classes can just avoid the damage completely by walking slightly to the side, maybe change the stam morph to occur in an aoe around the caster instead of a straight line or something like that.

Its also completely possible that I just suck at playing warden.

YandereGirlfriend · September 14

No way, this skill has already been messed with enough.

This is the best skill in the entire Warden toolkit.

LittlePinkDot · September 14

I don't really like it either. It's damage is too situational.
As soon as ZoS allows bleed damage to work on soul wield (bleeding soul), I'll switch to that with major breach.
With blood drinkers set it should hit pretty good.

Urzigurumash · September 14

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

No way, this skill has already been messed with enough.

This is the best skill in the entire Warden toolkit.

Best skill in the game in my opinion, makes Warden the best class

Zodiarkslayer · September 15

My only complaint is the magic damage not being frost damage on Deep Fissure and the poison damage not being bleed damage on Sub Assault.
Actually, all Animal Companion abilities should deal either Bleed or Frost. Magic and Poison Damage should have no place in the Wardens tool kit.

There is this thing called consistency. Helps a lot with creating synergies.

HoffmannTheBest · September 16

Urzigurumash wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

No way, this skill has already been messed with enough.

This is the best skill in the entire Warden toolkit.

Best skill in the game in my opinion, makes Warden the best class

I consider this skill the most disgusting in the arsenal, after Sleet Storm.
The damage is just as situational and easy to avoid, plus it is incredibly tiny compared to the ultimates of other classes and weapon abilities. The same Nightblade's ultimate deals a mind-boggling 20k damage per hit, while Sleet Storm deals only 10k damage over 8 seconds. This is catastrophically little, especially if you are against a fat tank with 40k+ HP.

CameraBeardThePirate · September 16

HoffmannTheBest wrote: »

Urzigurumash wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

No way, this skill has already been messed with enough.

This is the best skill in the entire Warden toolkit.

Best skill in the game in my opinion, makes Warden the best class

I consider this skill the most disgusting in the arsenal, after Sleet Storm.
The damage is just as situational and easy to avoid, plus it is incredibly tiny compared to the ultimates of other classes and weapon abilities. The same Nightblade's ultimate deals a mind-boggling 20k damage per hit, while Sleet Storm deals only 10k damage over 8 seconds. This is catastrophically little, especially if you are against a fat tank with 40k+ HP.

If you're only dealing 10k damage over 8 seconds with Sleet Storm (Northern Storm), you have a build problem. Northern has a base tooltip of 14k over 8 seconds - that's before any scaling whatsoever. You should be dealing much more than 10k over 8 ticks.

Stafford197 · September 16

Overall functionality is fine, but the theme is weird. The original ability “Subterranean Assault” used to summon a Haj Mota to attack just like the archer adds do in Falkreath Hold. Only reason the Warden ability was changed into shalks and renamed to “Scorch” is to be more Vvardenfell-themed

IMO, Scorch should be Frost and Bleed focused like this:

Subterranean Tremors (Base: Stamina)
Stir a Haj Mota to dig toward your enemies after 3 seconds, dealing 2509 Bleed Damage as the Haj Mota’s shell slices enemies in front of you.
Each hit deals an additional 126 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds.

Subterranean Assault (Morph 1: Stamina)
Stir a Haj Mota to dig toward your enemies after 3 seconds, dealing 2591 Bleed Damage as the Haj Mota’s shell slices enemies in front of you. It then burrows underground for 3 seconds before repeating the attack, dealing 2591 Bleed Damage.
Each hit deals an additional 390 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds. Enemies struck take up to 10% more Bleed Damage for 8 seconds, based on your Weapon Damage.
New Effect: Increases additional hit damage and the Haj Mota strikes a second time. Enemies struck receive more Bleed Damage from all sources.

Glacial Fissure (Morph 2: Magicka)
Stir an Ice Wraith to pierce enemies with ice spikes after 3 seconds, dealing 2591 Frost Damage to enemies in front of you. The ice spikes linger in the area for 8 seconds, dealing 1296 Frost Damage every 2 seconds to enemies within.
Each hit deals an additional 130 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds. Enemies struck take up to 10% more Frost Damage for 8 seconds, based on your Spell Damage.
New Effect: Increases size and instead calls an Ice Wraith to rise lingering ice spikes. Enemies struck receive more Frost Damage from all sources.

ESO_Nightingale · September 17

Stafford197 wrote: »

Overall functionality is fine, but the theme is weird. The original ability “Subterranean Assault” used to summon a Haj Mota to attack just like the archer adds do in Falkreath Hold. Only reason the Warden ability was changed into shalks and renamed to “Scorch” is to be more Vvardenfell-themed

IMO, Scorch should be Frost and Bleed focused like this:

Subterranean Tremors (Base: Stamina)
Stir a Haj Mota to dig toward your enemies after 3 seconds, dealing 2509 Bleed Damage as the Haj Mota’s shell slices enemies in front of you.
Each hit deals an additional 126 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds.

Subterranean Assault (Morph 1: Stamina)
Stir a Haj Mota to dig toward your enemies after 3 seconds, dealing 2591 Bleed Damage as the Haj Mota’s shell slices enemies in front of you. It then burrows underground for 3 seconds before repeating the attack, dealing 2591 Bleed Damage.
Each hit deals an additional 390 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds. Enemies struck take up to 10% more Bleed Damage for 8 seconds, based on your Weapon Damage.
New Effect: Increases additional hit damage and the Haj Mota strikes a second time. Enemies struck receive more Bleed Damage from all sources.

Glacial Fissure (Morph 2: Magicka)
Stir an Ice Wraith to pierce enemies with ice spikes after 3 seconds, dealing 2591 Frost Damage to enemies in front of you. The ice spikes linger in the area for 8 seconds, dealing 1296 Frost Damage every 2 seconds to enemies within.
Each hit deals an additional 130 Bleed Damage and afflicts enemies with Major and Minor Breach, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948 and 2974 for 8 seconds. Enemies struck take up to 10% more Frost Damage for 8 seconds, based on your Spell Damage.
New Effect: Increases size and instead calls an Ice Wraith to rise lingering ice spikes. Enemies struck receive more Frost Damage from all sources.

I'm glad someone else was using the glacial fissure name for a deep fissure rework. It's crazy but minus the visual changes (which are awesome), these are the exact changes id do down to the lingering frost patches. Thumbs up from me.

Sluggy · September 17

Yeah, and while we're at it Polar Wind is really weak too! It needs at least a 100% buff. And make it heal all people in front of you instead of just one person!

AcadianPaladin · September 18

Thematically, I'd much rather see this skill called Field of Thorns and have it summon throrny vines that come up from the ground to damage foes. This would make the class a little more RP flexible for a druid or ranger type instead of some weird class that summons Morrowind beetles.

TechMaybeHic · September 19

Sluggy wrote: »

Yeah, and while we're at it Polar Wind is really weak too! It needs at least a 100% buff. And make it heal all people in front of you instead of just one person!

Just add the HOT to the burst heal for one mega heal. More accessible that way

Aggrovious · September 19

Sluggy wrote: »

Yeah, and while we're at it Polar Wind is really weak too! It needs at least a 100% buff. And make it heal all people in front of you instead of just one person!

Nah, return artic blast back to how it used to be. Damn pvpers have to ruin everything

YandereGirlfriend · September 19

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Thematically, I'd much rather see this skill called Field of Thorns and have it summon throrny vines that come up from the ground to damage foes. This would make the class a little more RP flexible for a druid or ranger type instead of some weird class that summons Morrowind beetles.

This is an awesome re-work idea for Corrupting Pollen.

HoffmannTheBest · September 19

Where are those abilities from the trailer anyway? Why did the powerful blast of cold turn into some weak snowstorm? Where is the big static shield instead of the spinning shields? And why does the bear disappear after changing the ability panel, we need to remove this. The bear is not good enough to sacrifice two situational ultimates for the sake of one weak bear.

Sluggy · September 20

Aggrovious wrote: »

Sluggy wrote: »

Yeah, and while we're at it Polar Wind is really weak too! It needs at least a 100% buff. And make it heal all people in front of you instead of just one person!

Nah, return artic blast back to how it used to be. Damn pvpers have to ruin everything

*squints eyes*

Can't tell if you're being serious or playing along with me.

robpr · September 20

Shalks are fine. I'd like to have Deep Fissure to recast after 3s like Subassault does, but by itself the skill is fine.

Casting shalks every 3s in a rhythm was once a Warden identity and its gone for the sustain, but I'd like even delays for both casts in both morphs.

Stafford197 · September 20

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Thematically, I'd much rather see this skill called Field of Thorns and have it summon throrny vines that come up from the ground to damage foes. This would make the class a little more RP flexible for a druid or ranger type instead of some weird class that summons Morrowind beetles.

This is an awesome re-work idea for Corrupting Pollen.

It would be so much better if the class allowed for a full Nature or full Frost route. Both types could be damage dealers, and then Nature supports would Healers, while Frost supports would be Tanks. That would allow way more build opportunity as opposed to making each skill line try to fulfill only one role.

Field of Thorns (formerly Corrupting Pollen)
Encapsulate a field in jagged thorns for 14 seconds, which lingers and cuts enemies in the area for 588 Bleed Damage every 2 seconds. Enemies who enter or leave the area must cross through the outer barbs, dealing 1176 Bleed Damage.
Fields afflict enemies with Minor Cowardice, reducing their Weapon and Spell Damage by 215. Up to 3 Fields may be active at a time.
New Effect: Increases the duration. Fields no longer heal allies, but rather damage enemies and can be placed in multiple locations. Enemies within have reduced Weapon and Spell Damage.